Approx. Three weeks later:
Things in Danielle's life had started to settle down as her and her family adjusted to their new life in Gotham. Her Dad went off to work every day while her and her Mom stayed at home, doing random little things as the days went on. Since Danielle wasn't in school yet, she had a lot of free time on her hands. Her daily routine consisted of an 8:30 AM wake up, breakfast, and then absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. This morning was no different from the rest.
At exactly 8:30, Danielle's alarm went off with the same shrill, annoying beeping sound. Groaning, she turned over in bed, slinging her arm over her eyes to shield them from the morning sun. She started blindly reaching around for her alarm clock that was somewhere on her night stand. These early mornings were getting more and more difficult due to her late night stakeouts. She'd been getting around four to five hours of sleep each night. She viewed it as the price to pay to get a chance to Gotham's legends.
For the past few weeks, she'd been climbing on to the top of the roof every night. For many reasons of course: the view, the time alone, but what she really wanted, was to see the two caped crusaders. Ever since she discovered the boot prints on the roof, she'd been dead set on finding their source, which she believed came from Batman and Robin. For about a week and a half she'd been climbing up there, every night at 11:30, she'd venture out on to the top of the building and wait. It was taking a toll in her sleeping schedule and making her mornings more and more difficult.
It took her a good 45 seconds of aimlessly patting around her nightstand for her to find her alarm clock. Slowly sitting up, Danielle rubbed her heavy eyes and yawned. If she were to keep this up, she'd need to invest in a good coffee machine just to get through the mornings.
Deciding that she better get out of bed before her Dad leaves for work, Danielle threw off the covers and shuffled out of bed. Before she left her room, she grabbed her favorite grey hoodie off the floor and pulled it on over her t-shit. If this apartment had one thing, it was good air conditioning.
The moment she opened her bedroom door, the scent of fresh coffee and toast greeted her. She quickly closed the door and headed for the kitchen. Her bare feet pattered down the hallway of their apartment and on into the kitchen.
At the sound of their daughter entering the room, Danielle's Mom and Dad turned away from their current activities and offered her warm smiles. She gave a groggy smile back.
"Good morning Dan. How'd you sleep?" Her Mom inquired as she poured a cup of coffee and set it in front of her husband.
Pulling out a chair of her own and sitting down, she answered, "I slept good enough, I guess."
She could tell she looked like a wreck in the mornings and that her parents were getting suspicious. She'd rather have her parents thinking she wasn't sleeping well instead of them actually knowing that she stayed up for hours on end every night.
Her Dad looked at her with concern. After taking a sip of his coffee, he looked to his wife who was washing dishes at the sink. Receiving a nod, he turned back to his daughter and said, "Danielle, dear. Your mother and I are concerned that you may not be taking the move so well. We've noticed how tired you've been lately. If you need to talk to us, we are here. And if you don't feel comfortable talking to us, I'm sure we can find someone else for you to talk to."
At this, Danielle perked up. She didn't want her parents to know that she was spending her nights up on the roof, but she certainly didn't want them thinking that she had some psychological problem either!
"What?" she asked as she looked her Dad in the eyes. "No. No, no, no. I love it here!" Danielle said with wide eyes. "I've just been staying up late talking to friends and stuff. You guys don't need to worry, I honestly do like living here. I promise." she said with a smile.
Her Mom sighed and returned her daughters smile.
"Well," she said, "I'm glad you're adjusting sweetheart. Although your Father's job is important, you're our first priority." Her Mom said, sliding a plate with two pieces of toast on it in front of Danielle.
Taking a last sip from his coffee, Danielle's Dad got up and pushed in his chair.
"Well, that's all for me folks. Time to go to work." He said as he hugged Danielle from behind and kissed her on the top of the head. Walking to the other side of the table, he did the same to his wife before he picked up his phone and car keys, waved goodbye, and was out the door.
Taking a big bite of her toast, Danielle got up and put her plate in the sink and pushed her chair in.
"Hey Mom, I'm gonna head back to my room, ok?" she stated more than asked.
"Uh, yeah, sure." She said with a tinge of disappointment. "Are you sure you're adjusting well? You seem to be spending a lot of time in your room." She replied.
"Don't worry, Mom. I'm just gonna go video chat with some friends. Zoe got her braces off and I wanna see how she looks." Danielle replied over her shoulder as she walked down the hall towards her room.
"Ok," her Mom said with a little sadness in her voice, but Danielle was already to her room and had gone inside. Her Mom had hoped to spend some time with her daughter now that she was able to. She had to give up her job since they were moving to Gotham. She'd have to find new employment soon. Deciding that it wasn't something that was worth causing conflict about, she turned back to the sink and continued washing dishes.
Danielle felt bad about not spending time with her parents, but she had other things to do at the moment. She had made a habit of spending a lot of time on the computer reading up about a certain pair of vigilantes.
Apparently, there was more than just Batman and Robin. There was also an older hero named Nightwing who is said to appear in Gotham from time to time but is most frequently spotted in Bludhaven. It's speculated that Nightwing was the original Robin, but out grew the role and was replaced by the current Robin. There was also a bunch of other theories on this site that Danielle was on, but that was the most plausible one.
Most of Danielle's free time was spent reading and searching about these heroes. It had honestly had become a bit of an obsession to her.
She couldn't help herself. It intrigued her too much for her to just ignore it. Along with all her "research", she had set a goal. She wanted to be the first person to actually get a picture of The Batman. Of course there some pictures out there, but they were all too blurry to actually distinguish what was in the picture. That's why she wanted to be the first to actually see Batman and Robin and not get her face punched in by them, hopefully.
The rest of Danielle's day passed pretty slowly. Her and her Mom went out for lunch, her Dad came home and they ate dinner, and at 10:30, they all went to bed.
Once she finished brushing her teeth, she went into her parent's room to tell them goodnight. Slowly she opened the door and peeked inside. Sitting up in bed were her Mother and Father who she loved so dearly. Both had a book in hand and her Dad had to peer over his reading glasses to see her in the doorway.
Smiling, she opened the door a little more and peered further inside.
"Goodnight you guys," she said smiling. "See ya in the mornin'."
"Night sweetheart." Her Mom said. "Maybe tomorrow sometime we could go out shopping or go down town. Just to get out of the house." She said, giving the same warm smile she always gave her daughter.
"Sure, Mom." She said before looking to her Dad.
"Night Daddy." Danielle said with a gushy tone of voice. He put his book down and gave a thin smile. "Night Dan." He replied. She was expecting a much more loving reply, but brushed it off to a long day at work. She had noticed that he came home without his suit jacket, he must have left it at the office.
She smiled once more to each parent and quietly closed the door. Softly, she walked to her room and closed the door, locking it once she was inside. She flopped down onto her bed and opened up her laptop. She had an hour to kill so she decided listening to music would ease the wait.
Once her playlist came to an end, she checked her clock and noticed that it was 11:28. It was time! She closed her laptop and climbed out of bed. She started walking over to her night stand and picked up her hoodie and her old baby monitors. Her parents had kept most of her baby stuff, but she never thought she'd have a reason to use any of it again. Placing the monitor that had the microphone by her door, she turned it on and checked to make sure the door was locked.
Her plan was fool proof. If her parents came to her door, she'd hear it through the monitor and know that she had to get her butt back in her room. Genius, right?
Unlocking and opening the window that she recently fixed to get rid of that squeaky sound, she headed out onto the fire escape. Sliding the baby monitor into her hoodie's pocket, she tucked some blonde strands of hair behind her ear, and started up the ladder. Once on top, she quietly lowered herself down and headed over to the spot where she set up her "base camp".
She'd created a pretty sweet set up. She had an old blanket in case it got cold, an alarm clock to wake her up in the off chance she fell asleep up there, and of course, a camera.
The last few days, however, her attention has been focused elsewhere. For about four days, a black van has been creeping past the apartment at exactly 11:45 each night. It wasn't an old creeper looking van, more like a FBI stakeout van. That made her wonder even more, could this van be attached the footprints on the roof? What if someone in her complex was The Batman!
She discarded that last theory, because the Batman obviously had a good source of income to be able to afford all his cool gadgets, so why would he be living in this part of town? It still made her wonder, why would the FBI, or whoever it was, be spying on her apartment complex?
Usually the van would drive by at 11:45, but tonight it was already there, parked across the street from her complex. This peaked Danielle's curiosity. A new development had arisen! Now she just needed to know why the van decided to stop tonight. From what she could see, there was no driver or passenger. It was hard to tell though, the windows were so tinted.
Danielle walked over to the side of the building that faces the street and stopped. She grabbed the baby monitor out of her hoodie and turned the volume all the way up. Sighing, Danielle crossed her arms and leaned up against the wall. Taking a deep dreath, she perched her chin on her hand and began to admire the beautiful Gotham skyline. If there was something she could not get used to, it was the view. It was one of the most beautiful sights she ever saw. It was a strange feeling looking out over the sea of lights. All the people that were there, all living their own lives. It amazed her and scared her all at the same time.
She wondered where Batman and Robin were tonight. She gazed over the city in a daze, wondering. The two heroes had to be out there somewhere. Maybe tonight would be her lucky night.
Danielle was so deep in thought, she failed to notice the scraping noise as someone scaled the building across the street from her. Quietly, the figure clad in black, moved to a certain spot directly across from her.
Loud static rang through the mans' ear piece.
"Don, you in position?" came a dry, raspy voice through his communicator.
Touching the com link in his ear, Don quietly replied. "Yeah, just give me a sec. I'll get this little girl taken care of, and then we'll be good to go. Quick and easy with no witnesses." Don kneeled down on the roof top adjacent from Danielle.
"Alright, lets lock and load. The faster we get this done the better. God knows we don't want Bat problems." Scoffed the person on the other end of Don's com link. Slinging the case off his back, Don unloaded the high tech sniper rifle and started to assemble it. In a matter of seconds, the gun was put together and he was eyeing his target, the blonde 14 year old across the street. She was facing directly towards him, but with her head looking down the street.
"As soon as you hear the shot, enter the building. We've already got a few people in the building on the top floor, but we gotta make this quick. Like we went over, take what you can, if anyone puts up a struggle, kill em." He said coldly.
"Rodger." came an equally cold reply.
Squinting through the eye piece, Don viewed the small teen that had been regularly up on the roof of the Essex apartment complex, the latest target for Don and his crew. Unfortunately, this kid had made a nightly habit of staying up on the roof. It was obvious that she had become aware of his crew's van and their late night activates as well.
'Too bad.' Don thought as he placed his gloved finger softly on the trigger, 'She looks like a sweet kid. Oh well, can't start having a conscience now.' he thought to himself as he readied to pull the trigger that would end the young girls' life.
"Ready. Aim. Annnnd… Fire." The would be murderer spoke as he pulled down on the trigger. A fraction of a second before the gun sent the bullet slicing through the air, a well-aimed object forced the barrel of his assault rifle down from the girl's head to and now aligned it with her left shoulder.
Still, the defining shot rang out, roaring through the air like thunder. Along with the sound of the shot bullet, a young boys shout of warning sailed through the air. Sadly, his shout of caution was drowned out by the bullet moving at an incredible speed.